Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., leaves on an elevator after a vote at the Capitol on Feb. 12, 2018. Duckworth recently explained on a podcast the reasoning behind her "Cadet Bone Spurs" nickname for President Donald Trump.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., leaves on an elevator after a vote at the Capitol on Feb. 12, 2018. Duckworth recently explained on a podcast the reasoning behind her "Cadet Bone Spurs" nickname for President Donald Trump. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

First-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who has drawn widespread attention for calling President Donald Trump "Cadet Bone Spurs," has now explained the jab.

"I think bullies need to have a taste of their own medicine, and he is a bully. And you stand up to bullies," Duckworth said on Politico’s “Women Rule” podcast. "I just think it's ironic that you have an injury that is so severe it keeps you out of serving your country, but you don't remember which foot it was in, or whether it was in both feet."

Trump played sports during high school in a military academy but received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War. One deferment came after a physician stated in a letter that Trump suffered from bone spurs in his feet.

Duckworth lost both legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in 2004.

On the podcast, she wasn’t shy about singling out which Democrats she’d like to see run for the White House in 2020.

"I'm going to have to say Amy Klobuchar,” she said, talking about her Minnesota colleague. Then she plugged Ohio’s Democratic senator, saying: “I would love to see more Midwestern Dems run. I think Sherrod Brown would be fantastic. Amy would be fantastic." (Katherine Skiba)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will cut the ribbon on the Woodson Regional Library.

*Gov. Bruce Rauner will tour Methodist College in Peoria, before later attending a Associated Builders & Contractors of Illinois event in Addison.

*Kennedy features Emil Jones in new radio ad: Democratic governor candidate Chris Kennedy is up with a new radio ad featuring former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones criticizing primary rival J.B. Pritzker.

The ad, airing on stations with a large African-American audience, comes more than a week after a Chicago Tribune report on a government recorded conversation between Pritzker and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich over potential African-American candidates to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy created by Barack Obama’s White House victory.

On the November 2008 call, Pritzker, who was advising Blagojevich on filling the U.S. Senate seat held by Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, pitched the idea of picking Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, in part because it “covers you on the African-American thing.” Pritzker also calls Jones “crass” and said then-U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. would be a “nightmare.”

Jones, a Kennedy supporter, goes after Pritzker in the one-minute radio spot.

Jones goes on to say that “Chris’ father, Robert Kennedy, and his uncle, President Kennedy, fought and struggled and sacrificed alongside Dr. King in the civil rights movement. Chris has devoted his life fighting for those who are left behind. That’s the Kennedy way.”

Kennedy is counting heavily on support from the African-American community in his bid for the nomination. (Rick Pearson)

*Giffords’ gun-safety group makes legislative endorsements: The gun-safety organization founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a political action committee working against gun violence are jointly backing a dozen Democratic lawmakers and legislative candidates in the March 20 primary.

The move by Giffords, the group founded by the former congresswoman and her husband, Mark Kelly, and G-PAC comes in the wake of the downtown killing of Chicago Police Department Commander Paul Bauer on Monday and the deadly mass-shooting Tuesday at a high school in Broward County, Florida.

The Democratic lawmakers facing primaries who got the groups’ endorsement are state Sen. Iris Martinez and Reps. Dan Burke, Kelly Cassidy, Robert Martwick, Justin Slaughter and Mary Flowers of Chicago, as well as Reps. Elizabeth Hernandez of Cicero, Robert Rita of Blue Island and Thaddeus Jones of Calumet City.

In addition, Democrat Lamont Robinson received an endorsement as he runs to fill the House seat being vacated by state Rep. Juliana Stratton’s bid to be lieutenant governor. Also getting backing: Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz of Glenview, who is running for the seat being given up by state Rep. Laura Fine; and Daniel Didech of Buffalo Grove, who is competing for the seat being vacated by the retirement of Rep. Carol Sente of Vernon Hills. (Rick Pearson)

*More than 50 women officials back Lipinski: Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski on Wednesday announced he’s been endorsed for re-election by 56 women who are elected officials in his 3rd Congressional District.

They include three village presidents: Sandra Bury of Oak Lawn, Mary Werner of Worth and Alice Gallagher of Western Springs, where he lives. Alderwomen, trustees, clerks and other officials round out the group.

Lipinski is being challenged from the left in the Democratic primary by a progressive newcomer, Marie Newman, who has gotten nods from Democratic women in Congress and two sitting U.S. House Democrats in Illinois, as well as from Planned Parenthood Illinois Action.

Lipinski is the only incumbent congressional Democrat from Illinois that has not been endorsed by Planned Parenthood Illinois Action. The group also made no endorsement for the Democratic primary for the seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez. (Katherine Skiba)

*A new Legionnaires' case: A resident of the state mental health center in downstate Chester has been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease, the Illinois Department of Human Services announced Wednesday.

The agency says the patient is "being treated and is currently in stable condition."

It's a single case and not the kind of thing that typically would get much attention, but Rauner continues to face pressure over his administration's handling of an outbreak of the disease at the state-run veterans home in Quincy that left 13 people dead.

Like Quincy, Chester sits right on the Mississippi River about 200 miles to the south.

*CUTE: The day of a governor's budget address can cause heartburn for people at the Capitol, with lawmakers, lobbyists and staff throwing elbows in the crowds outside the Illinois House in the frenetic rush to weigh in.

*Quick spin: Rauner ordered flags lowered to half-staff in Bauer's honor. The decree runs through the end of the day Saturday. ...Biss is getting the backing of People’s Action and its local Reclaim Chicago organization, both progressive groups. People’s Action says it has 48 member organizations in 30 states and supports economic, climate, racial and gender justice.